Just a Little Girl: Part I
by bowtruckle90
Summary: Remus Lupin's prodigal daughter Elizabeth's first year of school. She is tenacious, intelligent, and hard to fool. Remus gets more than he bargained for in taking her to school with him, and treads water while learning how to parent in a whole new environment.
1. Chapter 1

"She's just a little girl, sir. And she has no mother. How am I supposed to look after her and teach?"

Remus was clenching his hands together nervously. It had been years since he had seen the headmaster, even longer since he had set foot in the school. Nothing much had changed though. Except that he was being asked to be a professor now. The rub was his daughter. She was six years old, and a very unusual child. She was bright and intellectual; spoke like an adult, and mostly only _with_ adults. Remus' condition had kept the little family of two very isolated. Maybe it was his fault for keeping her away from other children, but he was concerned that his condition could pop up in her at any time, even though he could find no indication that it would.

Lizzie had started homeschooling the previous year to keep her from accidentally causing a massive accident at home, sanctioned by the governors of Hogwarts, who tried to call the child to the school that summer. Remus had made a very rare appearance at the Ministry to plead the case for her to be schooled by him at home. Since then she had completed years one and two since she worked through almost two summers. Unfortunately this successful record meant that he was now being angled for as a professor.

Dumbledore seemed to be quite interested in this particular point Remus was bringing up. He smiled and leaned his forearms on his desk. "Well, your daughter is being schooled. She is on year three curriculum I hear." Remus nodded. "Well, then, we'll just enroll her. the governors will have no objection since they wanted her in this institution in the first place. She'll receive her education and some much needed socialization."

"She is six years old, sir."

Dumbledore merely smiled wider. "Then it's a good thing there are some very trustworthy third years we can introduce her to. Besides," he continued, "there is a plethora of relatives for her here, mostly of which she has not seen for many years. Myself included."

It was true enough. Elizabeth was the daughter of Remus and his deceased wife, Miranda. Miranda was Minerva McGonagall's daughter. Minerva had been married to Thomas McGonagall, who has died some time ago, but was the son of Aberforth Dumbledore, Albus' brother. His mother, Sarah had never married the man and therefore Thomas had kept his mother's name. Minerva's sister Katherine had married a man named Caledon Hockley. Together they had a daughter Mary who married Amos Diggory and they had a son, Cedric, who was Elizabeth's cousin. It was confusing sometimes, since most of these people were now dead, but no matter how you turned it, Lizzie had a grandmother, twice great uncle, and a cousin at the school itself. Her great grandfather Aberforth was the owner of the Hog's Head, not that anyone would tell Lizzie that. Ever. Hell, if she made it to O.W.L.s, she would be practically examined in some subjects by her great uncle John Tofty, her grandmother's brother. Maybe she did need some family around. Remus had been keeping her with him her whole life, no other contact unless it was absolutely necessary. Albus might be right. It might be time to have her understand her roots.

"All right," Remus sighed. "I'll do it. I'll teach Defense. But you know that something is going to happen. Either I will have to leave when the year is out, or... If things start going bad, I'll take her and be gone. This job is a better offer than most but it's not worth her life or quality of life if something happens to me."

Dumbledore shook on it, gladly. After all there were only a few days left before the train would be pulling in. A teacher was desperately needed.


	2. Chapter 2

"They'll all be much older than you, my dear. If that's not okay with you, we can come up with something else, but Dad has to take this job."

The child, with deep burgundy hair adorned with a green ribbon to match her romper, simply looked at her father from across their dinner table, saying, "It's okay. I think I'll like school. There will be other kids there."

"Older kids," Remus insisted. "They'll always be much older than you."

Lizzie spooned another bite of soup into her mouth and said, "Maybe, but I'll be a lot older than a lot of them," she used her free hand to point to her temple. "In here."

Remus laughed a little. "Of course. You're right of course. As usual."

The following day, Remus helped Lizzie pack her clothes, shoes and books. The latest were the most numerous. Remus called Madame Malkin's shop in Diagon Alley, but after pulling his head from her fireplace, determined that there were no school robes that would fit Lizzie. Remus had thought as much, and so they packed her various muggle outfits and a few witch's robes along with everything else and left their secluded cottage in the mountains to make their way to the barrier on their land and apparate into Diagon Alley.

After picking up a few necessary items for schooling in classrooms in various shop, none of which excited the young girl more than Flourish and Blotts, the two made their way back to the muggle streets of London and were on their way to King's Cross to catch the 11:00 train to Hogwarts.

"Now you have a lot of relatives here. Your cousin Cedric for example. Your mother's mother's sister's daughter's son."

"Are they all going to be that complicated?"

Lupin smiled as he set their trunks on top of the rack over their heads. "No my darling. You also have your grandmother, and your twice great uncle."

"Mom's mom, and I'm guessing, her father's brother?"

"Right. you might catch your great uncle John later in the year as he is an examiner for the Educational Authority. He's your, uh…" Remus sat by the window and made himself comfortable as he thought. "Your grandmother's brother. I know it's a lot, but really, we're all here to protect you, look out for you. Even Dumbledore."

"He's the twice great uncle," Lizzie said to herself before yawning a little. "Two uncles, a grandmother, a cousin, and my dad. Sounds like a family to me." with that she drifted off to sleep. Remus, feeling a little tired himself, tossed his coat over the both of them as Lizzie slumped halfway into his lap. If he was going to be napping, he would much rather no one be tittering about the young child behind his unconscious back.


	3. Chapter 3

"Daddy?" Lizzie woke up in the compartment, and her father was gone, but there were three students there instead. They looked rattled, particularly the boy with dark hair. "Where did my father go?"

The girl extended a hand. "My name is Hermione. Your father is Professor Lupin?" Lizzie nodded and shook the hand. "He'll be back, he's just gone to see the driver. This is Ron and Harry. Are you all right?"

Lizzie nodded. "What happened?"

Hermione sat beside the little girl, saying, "Dementors came on board."

"Oh," Lizzie responded. "Looking for Black. Yes, I'm glad I was asleep then. I hate those things."

Hermione blinked for a moment. Lizzie had seen this look many times before, from those who had never met her before. They usually took on a confused face before recovering and beginning to speak to her without the sickly sweet tone most children are privy to. Hermione recovered rather quickly. Quicker than most. She cleared her throat a little, saying, "Yes, well they're gone now. I didn't catch your name."

"Elizabeth," Lizzie responded. "But you can call me Lizzie. Everyone does."

Ron, who was resting comfortably again and shoving chocolate into his mouth said through puffing cheeks, "So your mum was okay with your dad bringing you all the way here to school was she?"

"She's dead."

The tone was so flat Ron stopped chewing for a moment. Lizzie didn't like talking about her mother. And for good reason. Her father never pressed her to talk to anyone about the matter, though sometimes she got the feeling he thought she should, to someone. Maybe if there had been family around. For the longest tie it had only been the two of them. Now it seemed she had relatives in spades. Lizzie turned to the dark haired boy, Harry and said, "You're Harry Potter aren't you?"

Harry nodded. Lizzie smiled and added, "Nice to meet you." Directly following this, Lizzie began smoothing down her burgundy hair, clearly not a trait of her fair haired father, and turned to Hermione asking, "I don't suppose you have a hairbrush?"

When Remus returned he saw his daughter sitting in front of the frizzy haired girl who was brushing the young child's hair and the boys amicably chatting with his daughter. At this sight, Remus smiled, saying, "Well Lizzie, you seem to have met your new friends. These are the third years you'll be taking lessons with this year."

"Lessons?" Hermione asked. "She's a student?"

"I finished years one and two at home. We had to start early because I'm too dangerous to leave untrained."

The remainder of the ride was quieter. Apparently the three of them had never met an actual prodigal child before. Now they were about to get a crash course.


	4. Chapter 4

Remus sat behind Lizzie on her bed in their quarters off the defense classroom. He was brushing out her hair and straightening her bow. He had let her dress in a blue jumper, even though Lizzie had insisted that it would get ruined in herbology class. She was probably right, but it was better than letting her start the semester wearing muggle jeans. So here she sat, books in a bag slung over her shoulder and letting her father make her up like a little doll.

"Now remember, these students are older than you, so they might get things a little faster. You don't need to get upset if you don't understand something right away, all right? I enrolled you in Arithmancy and Ancient Runes along with you core classes. I don't have you until this afternoon but if anything goes wrong just come back here. Stick with Harry, Ron and Hermione and don't go wandering off by yourself."

Remus was nervous. He had always imagined sending his daughter to school at eleven like everyone else. Then when he had to teach her at home he imagined sending her off when she was seventeen. Now all of a sudden he was having to let go more than he anticipated, sooner than he thought.

When he was done Remus let Lizzie get up and helped her adjust her book bag. He looked her in the eye, saying, "Anything goes wrong, I'm in this classroom, all right?"

Lizzie smiled and nodded. There was a knock at the door. Father and daughter looked over and saw Hermione at the door. "I know I'm early but the boys are starving."

Remus nodded and looked back at Lizzie. "Do good okay?"

"Do well," she countered before running out the door, semi-dodging a good-hearted smack on her bum from her father. In a moment she was gone and Remus' heart suffered a minor hairline fracture at the sight of his six year old going to school.


	5. Chapter 5

"Poor Harry," Lizzie sighed, setting her boos down for the day. "I suppose boggarts aren't the worst thing to come across, but when it turns into a dementor…I couldn't face it."

Remus watched his daughter shuffle around her room and set things back in their places. It was true, his lesson with the third year Griffyndors and Slitherines had been insightful if nothing else. Harry's boggart had turned into a dementor, suggesting that boy only truly feared being afraid. Wise for a boy his age. What had surprised him more was that Lizzie had been moving toward the back of the room every time she started getting close to the front of the line. Strange. He had thought she would be one to fight to be first. From the other professors over the course of her first week, he had determined that she was a bright student, unafraid of answering, confident, and often correct. Why would she hide from this?

Remus sat on Lizzie's bed, motioning for her to join him. She did and with a comforting arm around her shoulders, Remus asked quietly, "Is there something that scares you about boggarts? More than the average?"

Lizzie never lied to her father, even when it meant she was in trouble. And so the girl nodded. "That one time we had one at home…when it found me it turned into him."

The him she was referring to was Lucious Malfoy. The man had likely caused the death of Lizzie's mother. Lizzie had been two years old, and Miranda was home alone with her while Remus was out at another of his short standing jobs. They had a fine living. Not rich, but Lizzie never wanted for anything. Miranda was a profiler for the Aurors. She examined cases and determined the kind of person they should be looking for. It helped law enforcement narrow their suspect list.

That night, Miranda was in the living room reviewing a case file, Lizzie was playing in front of the warm fireplace. There was a knock on the door. Miranda got up to open it. seeing that it was a man with the crest of the Hogwarts' Governor's Board on his robes, she opened the door, thinking something with her mother, her great uncle perhaps. Instead the man, hood raised, rushed inside and struggled with her. Miranda did not have her wand in her hand, but she fought without one somehow. It still wasn't enough. A killing curse hit her square in the chest. During the struggle, the man's hood fell and Lizzie, the toddler with tears in her eyes from fear, looked up into the face of Lucious Malfoy, blonde hair flowing down either side of his visage. When Remus returned, he found his wife dead on the floor, and his young daughter, hiding behind a chair, thumb in her mouth (which had never happened before), and tears rolling down her face.

It had ben four years, and still the child could not let it go. Remus took both her hands in one of his and drew her in close. "It must be terrifying, my dear. I never knew. Why didn't you tell me?"

"I don't know," Lizzie responded tearfully. "I just…didn't think it was important. I should be able to face a boggart…"

Her voice trailed off. Remus drew back from her and looked hard. "There's more. Come on out with it."

"Dementors aren't very good either. They make me see everything, all over again. Like I'm not even where I am. Like I'm back in our house and he's right there, fighting with her."

Remus' heart ached for his little girl. She carried such heavy burdens for a six year old. To lighten the mood he smiled a bit and said, "Well, special as you are, I agree you should be able to handle a boggart. Come on." He stood and tugged on her hand to make her stand with him, and together they walked from her bedroom, through his bedroom and office, into the classroom they had left earlier. As they walked down the staircase, Remus said quietly, "Just think of something funny."

"Like what? Nothing about him is funny."

"Make something up. Like clown shoes, or-"

"I've got a good one."

Remus positioned his daughter, counted to three, and before he knew it the figure of Lucious Malfoy was floating toward the ceiling suspended by several dozen helium balloons fastened to the seat of his pants.

After stowing the boggart again and quelling the gales of laughter, Remus crouched beside Lizzie and said with as serious a face as he could muster, "You know what I'm going to say; we've discussed this before. There's not enough evidence to charge Malfoy. So keep the story quiet. Particularly around here since his son is in school. We're not always among friends. Remember that."

Lizzie nodded solemnly and together they walked down to the great hall for dinner.


	6. Chapter 6

Lizzie had been waiting in her uncle Albus' office for a long time since dinner. Something was going on, but far be it from the girl to know what. No one had said. All she knew was something was causing Gryffindor students not to be able to get to their dormitory. And so Lizzie sat on the couch by the fireplace, wondering what had happened.

"Aha, the little girl. Treating you like a child are they?"

Lizzie looked up. Peeves, the poltergeist of the school, was floating above her head. His face was adorned with a mischievous grin. Lizzie looked his in the eye, saying, "Of course they are. It's preposterous. I score higher in intelligence tests than most of the professors."

"But you are a child."

"I should be treated for my brain age, not my size."

Peeves turned himself upside down in the air, folding his arms. "I'm inclined to agree, young miss. How about we go hunting for the missing Fat Lady, shall we?"

Lizzie hadn't known it was about the Fat Lady obviously, so as they walked (well, she walked, he floated) Lizzie pumped the specter for answers. Apparently the students had arrived form dinner to find her portrait slashed to ribbons and the Fat Lady gone. Now there was not a teacher in the school that wasn't attempting to find her. The word was that it was Sirius Black trying to get inside.

"Sirius Black?"

"That murderer on the loose from Azkaban didn't you know?"

"Apparently there is quite a lot I didn't know."

They were on the fourth floor. Out of the corner of Lizzie eye, something moved. She spun her head to the right, trying to catch it. Whatever it was was gone. But it seemed like there was a sound moving ahead of them along the corridor wall. Lizzie ran long, trying to catch up. The sound was closer; now it seemed like it was sobbing. But it was quiet considering the stone that surrounded them, suggesting there should be an echo. Lizzie almost passed by the sound. Once she realized she had she doubled back and found herself in front of a bedroom portrait and hiding behind the bed curtain in the enormous painting was the Fat Lady.

Lizzie turned around; Peeves was still there. "Go get my uncle. Hurry!"

The child stayed with the guardian while Peeves was gone. She whimpered about Sirius Black and cried some more. When Peeves returned it was with Minerva, Albus, and Remus in tow. Minerva and Albus remained to try and coax the Fat Lady into an empty portrait for her to move to temporarily. Remus, however took his daughter to their quarters and sat her down on top of the desk in his office, and spoke very frankly with her.

"What did Peeves tell you?"

"That Sirius Black attacked her." But Lizzie, usually a poignant child, continued. "You lied to me. When I flipped through your old picture albums and asked you what had happened to Sirius, you said he had died when Peter and James did. You never said that he was in prison and you never said that he was a murderer. Who did he kill? And I would appreciate a truthful answer."

One hand on either side of his daughter's legs dangling off the edge of the desk, Remus hung his head a moment and took a deep breath. It was hard sometimes, to remind himself that his daughter however young was endowed with a brain most adults would covet. She was a child and as such he tried to protect her from the nasty parts of the world. It had escaped him in regard to his former friend that he would not be able to hide him from her, no matter how much Minerva, Albus, and himself had tried to shield her, it would have come out eventually. Lizzie wasn't stupid. If she had her heart on something she would find a way to find out the answers to the questions, with or without his help. At least if he told her the facts, maybe she would not resent him.

"Elizabeth, I am so sorry," he finally said, raising his head back to her eye level. "I should have told you when you asked. Sirius was an informant for Voldemort back in the day," the girl did not flinch at the name. She had heard it before. Her father felt no reason to conceal a name, not from such an intelligent child. "He sold out James and Lily to Voldemort, and Harry too. Before he went and killed Peter."

Lizzie smiled at him before flinging her arms around his neck. Remus returned the embrace, lifting his daughter into his arms as he straightened. "I know why you lied," Lizzie said quietly. "I'm a child. I know that. I'm smart, but I'm a kid still, and you're trying to be a good dad." She pulled back a little. "You are a good dad you know. But I can handle the answers to the questions I pose."

Remus nodded and began walking toward Lizzie's bedroom. It was quite late now. "I'll remember that, little girl," he said. When he set her down, standing on her bed, Remus shuffled around gathering some night clothes for her. "One thing," he added to their conversation.

"What?"

"Tell Harry nothing."


	7. Chapter 7

Remus hardly ever had an easy full moon. But this one was particularly bad. He hadn't taken his potion as often as he was supposed to. He trusted Snape and his skills, but not so much that he would take whatever the good professor told him to. This morning, Remus found himself too ill to teach so Snape was taking the classes. Remus had insisted that Lizzie go to her classes, but when he awoke from his nap, she was there, placing a cool cloth on his forehead.

"You should be in class."

"So should you."

It was true enough. If he had been more careful it would have been a better moon. Luckily for Remus he seemed to never pose a threat to his own daughter. He used to bring her to the home of Arabella Fig for the moons, someone from the old crowd. But there was one month in Lizzie's young childhood that he had forgotten. It was right after Miranda died. The time had gone by in a cloud. He had missed the full moon, hadn't ordered his potions and when he transformed Lizzie was still in the house. Remus didn't remember anything, but when he woke up in the morning Lizzie had been playing in her room where Remus was curled up. There were no scratched or bites on him, and Lizzie was unharmed. It seemed her presence was almost as calming as Wolfsbane potion itself.

"I told Hermione not to come for me this morning. I'm going to take care of you, and from now on, I'll make the potions. If you don't trust Snape I'll do it."

Remus struggled to sit up. "No, my dear. Best not to rock the boat. What did you say to Hermione?"

"I just said you were ill and I wanted to stay to help. I didn't know how much to say so I said as little as possible."

Remus smiled. He reached out for Lizzie, who sat on the edge of the bed. "I don't like raising suspicions when Snape already doesn't like me much and with Sirius out there somewhere. Best just let him play whatever tricks will be played. As for Hermione and the others, the less said the better."

"You want me to lie to my friends?"

Remus smiled wider now. "Friends?"

"They are my friends," the girl insisted.

Remus considered for a moment before taking both Lizzie hands. "I know we've had trouble about lying lately, but I'm asking you to omit some things from your friends. Things will come out in time, but I would rather not be chased down by a mob of angry parents. I trust Harry, but the others I don't know nearly as well. Best err on the side of caution."

And because she was a bright child, and knew the kind of stigma that surrounded her father's condition, Lizzie nodded in understanding.


	8. Chapter 8

"How is your father doing, Lizzie?"

Lizzie swallowed her bite of bacon and smiled toward Hermione. "He's feeling much better. Back to teaching today."

"That's good," Ron commented, not swallowing his own food. "I don't suppose Hermione's given you the assignment he gave us yet. It's mental."

Lizzie shrugged. "I heard from Seamus, but Dad says we're not going to have to do it, since it doesn't follow the coursework." She set down her fork and leaving her eggs unfinished gathered her schoolbag from beside her on the bench. "Come on, we're going to be late for my grandmother's class. She's already upset that I stayed home yesterday to help my dad."

Harry watched her go with a curious look on his face. Hermione looked up from her text for magical creatures class and asked, "Something wrong Harry?"

"You get the feeling she's hiding something?"

Ron shrugged. "Who knows, the kid is a right fruitcake."

Hermione huffed. "Just because she's intelligent Ronald, doesn't mean she's strange."

Harry stood up. "Well come on then, best get a move on."

"But I'm not finished," Ron complained. Harry merely swatted his shoulder.

"We're supposed to look after her, Ron, can't do that if she tried to go to class alone. Come on."


	9. Chapter 9

Lizzie woke up. She hardly woke at night. But the room was suddenly freezing. Outside, the window was frosting. Lizzie sat up and began rubbing her care arms trying to eradicate the goose bumps. She got up and went to the window. She wiped away the frost and just outside, gliding by like a reaper, was one of te dementors from the boundaries. Lizzie jumped back, squealing a little. They were supposed to stay at the edge of the school boundaries.

Another drifted in front of the window and looked her right in the face. Lizzie scrambled away and dropped to her knees. Her hands clamped over her ears and her eyes were closed tightly. Through the muffle her palms provided, she could hear raised voices. When Lizzie opened her eyes, she was in her living room in her own home, and in front of her was her mother and the blonde haired man in combat. Her mother's wand flew out of her hands. There was a flash of green and suddenly her mother crumpled to the floor. The man, hood down now, smiled at her. "Pretty child..." he uttered before turning and leaving.

Lizzie screamed. And she blinked. She was back in her Hogwarts bedroom again. Her body was covered in sweat and tears on her cheeks. Without thinking, Lizzie stood and ran from the room, through her father's bedroom and the office, down the stairs, through the classroom, and out the door into the corridor.

She ran. She didn't know where she was going and didn't know who she might come across, but she ran anyway. She rounded one corner and another. Everything was dark and she was confused. Where was her uncle's office? He was the headmaster he would want to know that the dementors were going against his orders again.

While she was running and thinking, Lizzie ran into someone and got knocked on her backside. She looked up and saw that it was Harry. He looked down with a concerned look. "Lizzie?" He crouched low and said quietly. "Are you all right?"

Lizzie was breathing hard and reached for Harry, who offered and hand and helped her up. He still had to bend over to her level, but Lizzie was calm enough to speak. "Dementors outside my window…scared the wits out of me…it was awful…"

Harry pulled her into a hug and said soothingly, "It's all right, you're all right." When he pulled away, Harry added, "I'm looking for someone. Want to help me?"

Lizzie nodded and together they walked. They walked for a long time, Harry holding an illuminated wand. He said that Peter Pettigrew had shown up on the map. Harry was tracking him. "But I thought he was dead," Lizzie commented.

"So did I. Your dad know about this?"

"No he thinks Peter is dead." She stared at the map in Harry's hands. "What is that?"

Harry explained dhow it showed where every school exit was, showed where every person in Hogwarts was and marked them. Sure enough, Peter was on the map.

After a while Lizzie started yawning. Harry knelt down and picked up the little girl. She held the map, however loosely while Harry followed the tracks. They were close, very close. But they watched as the footsteps passed by them, seeing nothing, no one. But before they could decide where to go and what steps to take next, the footsteps of Severus Snape appeared on the map just around the corner from where they were standing. Harry quickly put Lizzie down and tapped the map, whispering "Mischief Managed," before extinguishing his wand.

Not a second later the corridor was alight again, this time by the wand of Snape. "Potter," he sniveled. "What are you doing wandering the corridors at night? And with a young child no less. Good evening Miss Lupin."

Lizzie said nothing in return. Harry reached for her hand. Both of them were now free; the map had been stuffed into his sweatshirt pocket. "I was sleepwalking." It was an inane answer, clearly, but at least there was no semblance of Harry trying to cooperate. Any explanation that could be half true would leave one of them out to dry so instead he was opting for complete falsehood.

"You're extraordinarily like your father, Potter," Snape said lowly. "He too was exceedingly arrogant, strutting about the castle."

"My dad didn't strut," Harry countered forcefully. Feeling the grip on his hand tighten, he lifted Lizzie in his arms again. "Nor do I. now if you don't mind, I would appreciate it if you could lower your wand. I do have a kid in my hands after all."

Snape did, but he trained the light instead on Harry's pocket, which was bulging slightly. "Turn out your pockets," he commanded quietly with a hint of suspicion. When Harry made no move to obey, he repeated more forcefully, "Turn out your pockets."

Harry let Lizzie down again to do so, drawing out the map they had been reading. "What is that?" Snape asked.

"Spare bit of parchment."

"Really? Open it."

Harry hesitated, but once he had unfolded the map, still blank, Severus set his wand at the center saying, "Reveal your secrets…"

Lizzie craned to see. There were words writing themselves on the parchment. Form her angel she could not read it. But Snape wasted no time ordering Potter to do so. Harry did: "Mssrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs, offer their complements to Professor Snape and-"

"Go on."

"And request that he keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business."

That did it. the potions master was fuming now. "Why you insolent little-!"

"Professor." The even tones voice from behind the small group cut him short. Everyone turned, and the professor shined his light. It was Remus.

"Well, well, Lupin," Snape sneered. "Out for a little walk in the moonlight?"

Remus ignored the snide remark and stepped toward Harry and Lizzie. "I've been looking everywhere for you. Are you all right?"

"That remains to be seen." He snatched the map from Harry hand with such speed and ferocity, Lizzie jumped a little and clung to Harry's arm. He picked her up once more. "I have just now confiscated this a rather curious artifact from Mr. Potter. Take a look Lupin," he handed the parchment over, "this is supposed to be your area of expertise, clearly this is full of dark magic."

Remus chuckled. "I seriously doubt it, Severus, this looks like a parchment merely enchanted to insult anyone who tried to read it, I would assume it's a Zonko's product." Snape made to grab the map back, but Remus was quick and pulled away. "Nevertheless, I shall investigate any hidden properties it might have. It is after all as you say my area of expertise." He looked over to Harry and his daughter. "Harry would you come with me."

Harry followed, carrying Lizzie. She was drifting off now, unable to stay awake any longer. Her head was lolling on his shoulder. "Professor," Remus said with a kind air, "Goodnight."

When they returned to the office, Lupin did discipline Harry for the use of the map and his wandering around at night. They discussed Peter and how the map must have been faulty, well, at least Harry thought so. Before dismissing the boy, Remus took his daughter off his hands and asked, "Why was she with you? She's a young child Harry. Putting yourself in danger tonight put my child in danger. I won't stand for it again."

"I bumped into her. she was running from your quarters because a demontor came up to the window and scared the living daylights out of her. she was shaking and terrified so I asked if she wanted to walk with me for a while." He paused. "I didn't know it was so dangerous. If I knew I would have brought her right back."

Remus nodded and dismissed the boy. After putting Lizzie back into bed, carefully, so as not to wake her, Remus sat up with a brandy in his hand, wondering what he was going to say about the map in the morning. Lizzie was going to ask he could feel it.

There was much sleep to be had that night. But when Lizzie emerged from her room the next morning wearing a red jumper and placing a headband in her hair, she merely smiled and bade her father good morning. But she looked twice, "You look awful. Are you all right?"

"I'm fine darling, please come sit." Remus was sitting at his desk in the office. Lizzie set her bag down and went to sit beside her father. Once in his lap, he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck before finally asking, "That map, do you know where Harry got it?"

"No," Lizzie replied. "But it was strange…I thought you said Peter was dead."

"I thought so, dearest, but now…I'm not so sure. You see when we were in school together we made a right bit of trouble, remember. A right bit of trouble indeed. I wonder…"

Remus didn't finish his sentence. But he did snap out of a deep pensive look moments later, saying, "Ah well, something else to keep under your hat love. Thing was probably malfunctioning anyway."

He saw her off with Hermione some ten minutes later, glad that his daughter hadn't pressed harder about the map. Did that mean she was confiding in Harry and the others? Remus hoped so. Lizzie had become such a social child since coming to the school. If she continued to grill him about this and that there would be no secrets between father and daughter. And some secrets were good after all. Like the secrets about some of his school life when he was a boy. If she was bouncing ideas off the others, there would be no reason for Remus to lie or even omit anything anymore in an attempt to protect her and himself. That was a cleansing feeling.


	10. Chapter 10

Lizzie was sad to be going, but Remus had promised his daughter that she could return to Hogwarts to attend school the next year if she was so inclined. And so the little girl watched as her father finished packing their belongings following the incident in which Sirius was proven innocent, Peter alive and the true traitor of them all. He had disappeared when the moon caused Remus to change. Snape almost ruined everything and Harry and Hermione had to use Hermione's time turner to fix it and help Sirius escape with his life.

Remus packed a few more books away. "Are you sure you're not hurt?"

Lizzie had followed her father to the Shrieking Shack, despite him insisting that she stay behind. It was concerning to Remus. He had never hurt his daughter before, but this was a very bad moon, and it took him completely by surprise, and he had not taken his potion. Yet the girl insisted she hadn't received a scratch.

"I'm fine Dad, I'm more worried about you. It's out there now; I don't think you'll get another job. Not for a long time."

Remus shrugged. "We've thought so before, but we always do all right."

Another owl flew through the open window and dropped another howler on the pile that was growing on the desk. There were so many now. Angry parents. They just couldn't get past what her father was.

Lizzie was aware that her father's bank account was not very fruitful. He saved every knut he earned, but the people he owed never seemed to stop. Grocers, potioneers, various necessities for Lizzie's schooling. The girl sighed, saying, "Money is tight. Teaching this year helped. But you're going to have trouble now. Admit it."

Remus could hardly deny his daughter was right, even if he was trying to put on a brave face. He was going to have to think of something. As he was doing so, another owl flew in, with a normal folded letter this time. Lizzie rushed to grab it and tore the seal. "It's from Mrs. Fig…she says she's sorry about everything she's been hearing…offered to take me any time if you needed to interview for more jobs or anything."

Remus' face lit up. "I think I can do one better." He stopped packing, and knelt down in from of his daughter, taking the letter from her. "How would you like to spend the summer with her? Surry is closer to London, more kids around, and Harry lives only a street away in the summertime."

Lizzie eagerly agreed. After all the time they had spent together a summer with Harry would be very much welcome.


End file.
